Singer Robin Thicke and his actress-model wife, Paula Patton, who first met when he was only 14, have split after more than eight years of marriage, it was reported Monday.

"We will always love each other and be best friends," the couple said in a statement to People that confirmed their mutual decision to separate.

Thicke and Patton — he's 36, she's 38 — married in June 2005 and welcomed son Julian Fuego in April 2010.

Last September, talking to Star magazine (via Radar Online), the "Blurred Lines" singer called his partnership with Patton "the greatest love of the century, and the most functional, dysfunctional marriage in Hollywood," adding that over time they'd realized that they couldn't live without each other.

"My only comment about the so-called scandalous photo would be that my wife and I are perfectly in love and very happily married," he said at the time, referring to a photo of him and a fan at a party after August's MTV Video Music Awards that appeared to show him grabbing the fan's behind.

The VMAs also saw Thicke cavorting onstage with a twerking Miley Cyrus (you know the performance we're talking about) as Patton sat in the audience and watched.

Shortly after that show, Patton was saying she didn't get why the performance turned into such a big deal.

"Honestly, they rehearsed for three days beforehand, and I don't know how not to dance with someone having their booty in your … all my friends do it like that" the actress said on Bravo's "Watch What Happens Live."